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PSA: Know Your Playstyle

Xonra··39 votes·2,792 views

I'm not meaning this as a rant, just coming from someone frustrated regardless, and meaning this as legit advice.

This is mostly for lower ranks, but just an "in genera" sort of thing.

  • If you aren't good at hitting skillshots, maybe don't make your first choice Morgana support, for example.

  • If you have bad map awareness, try not to play a champ that pushes the lane, especially in solo lanes.

  • If you aren't great at CS'ing, try not to pick a champ that is so dependant on items compared to someone that has better late game scaling and better natural high stats.

  • Don't be afraid to be vocal (as in speak up, not be whiney) if you are bad in a certain role. That doesn't mean call "only adc" or some such. Know at the very least 3 roles WELL and one decent. Don't wait till you are last pick and it is your turn to pick to tell your team you can't jungle.

  • If you KNOW you can't play a certain champ, don't pick it just because your team is trying to pressure you to. They will be a lot happier you playing the champ they didn't want and doing well, than the champ they did and you doing bad.

  • If you KNOW you can't play a certain style, don't do it, again, just because your team is flailing at you to. Sure it is good to fill a role, such as last pick, you are support, pick a tank, BUT if you are godly Soraka, don't be pressured into playing a style you know you can't. Just make sure you are vocal about it when you know the role you will be playing.

  • Don't pick a champ because it is cool/the FOTM, especially if you don't know how to play it. Ranked is not the place to be testing out new champs and new builds. Good way to lose games.

49 Comments

Starfish H52 votes

Jax Hecarim Darius Katarina Garen MonkeyKing I identify my play style as a helicopter who drops down and starts spinning over everyone causing massive destruction

Xonra22 votes

[{quoted}](name=Starfish H,realm=NA,application-id=cIfEodbz,discussion-id=et8h3jIJ,comment-id=0002,timestamp=2015-09-27T00:47:26.609+0000)

Jax Hecarim Darius Katarina Garen MonkeyKing I identify my play style as a helicopter who drops down and starts spinning over everyone causing massive destruction

I approve of this message

XeroKimo7 votes

Yasuo - "Can I join?"

Jax Hecarim Darius Katarina Garen MonkeyKing - "You can't spin fast enough so no!!!!"

Yasuo - "Why does everyone hate me T_T"

Starfish H9 votes

Yasuo Starts crying I THOUGHT MOVING OUT OF IONIA WOULD BE BETTER. BUT NO ONE LETS ME JOIN THEIR CLUBS! Garen Alright fine Yasuo you can join. Yasuo Sniff Really? Garen Yes but as a junior member since you can't spin fast like us. Yasuo So who's in it? Amumu Tryndamere Zed Renekton XinZhao Sejuani Hi! Welcome! Yasuo I don't get it why is Sejuani not with you guys or Tryndamere? Darius only spins once. Darius Well my spin is more useful and also because if I spin any more I will throw up what I had for lunch, which is just Biscuts because apparently I can't drink regular potions anymore because I'm being played as support now. Garen Sejuani and Tryndamere can't join because I forgot about them They can't join because you have to commit mind, body, and soul to your spin. Sejuani just sort of spins her Ice bola and Trynd is spinning mostly cause he's angry all the time. Tryndamere I HEARD THAT COME OVER HERE MARRAIGE HASNT STOPPED ME FROM STRANGLING PEOPLE! Garen So cough Yasuo you want to join? Yasuo Do I!! Jumps into sky as it freezes insert 80's outro song here

Virgin Ray1 votes

XinZhao WHAT ABOUT ME!?!?!?!?!

Starfish H3 votes

Garen I think you are getting pretty old Xin because I literally just said you are a junior member. We had this talk before. Your spin just knocks them away and let's the people who have mobility get away XinZhao Back in my day we didn't have this fancy "mobility" we just had a slap stick and try not to die to 6 sunfire cape Evelynn Garen Alright whatever. Let's get you back to Demacia.

Virgin Ray1 votes

XinZhao But it's a disengage, you know, if our team is collapsed by the enemy I can just dash in and ult them to protect my team! I'm also sorry, me and Yasuo's eyes are as sharp as our weapons and can't see well.

Starfish H1 votes

Garen Huh valid points. You are captain of the Junior member Spin club XinZhao Why am I still a Junior? Garen Well no offense but umm Katarina He thinks your spin sucks still XinZhao item 3070 item 3070 Garen For Jarvan's sake Kat why did you say that? Katarina Well I'm sorry I gotta be honest I'm not Leblanc Leblanc Hi.

PopePancake1 votes

[{quoted}](name=Starfish H,realm=NA,application-id=cIfEodbz,discussion-id=et8h3jIJ,comment-id=0002,timestamp=2015-09-27T00:47:26.609+0000)

Jax Hecarim Darius Katarina Garen MonkeyKing I identify my play style as a helicopter who drops down and starts spinning over everyone causing massive destruction

A single tear down my cheek, take my upvote, young heli. item 3070

Starfish H1 votes

I just want to be like this Jax when I finally achieve my dream https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jgZ1wrMvBOI

Jungle Lux God4 votes

I identify your playstyle as a slot machine.

#Spin2Win

Boxpencil2 votes

BEYBLADEEEEEEES

Kouga12 votes

PSA: When frustrated, considering wording your "legit advice" in a positive light rather than a derogatory manner.

For example,

{quoted}

  • If you aren't good at hitting skillshots, maybe don't make your first choice Morgana support, for example.

Could also be said as,

Support Champions with targeted or AoE abilities, such as Sona, may be more reliable and easier to play than those who are reliant in skill shots such as Morgana

That way rather than saying "If you suck, do something else" you are instead saying, "This might be some successful strategies." Let's review some others.

Instead of,

  • If you have bad map awareness, try not to play a champ that pushes the lane, especially in solo lanes.

Try,

If you are playing in a SoloQ, it can be tough to coordinate with players you don't know. If you're in the mid or top lanes, Champions who can more easily farm under their tower, or who can protect themselves from ganks more easily might have a better time.

Instead of,

  • If you aren't great at CS'ing, try not to pick a champ that is so dependent on items compared to someone that has better late game scaling and better natural high stats.

Try,

Champions with high base stats are less dependent on gold income or items, making their strength more predictable, and less prone to falling behind if they get denied.

Instead of,

  • Don't be afraid to be vocal (as in speak up,* not be whiney*) if you are bad in a certain role. That doesn't mean call "only adc" or some such. Know at the very least 3 roles WELL and one decent. Don't wait till you are last pick and it is your turn to pick to tell your team you can't jungle.

and,

  • If you KNOW you can't play a certain champ, don't pick it just because your team is trying to pressure you to. They will be a lot happier you playing the champ they didn't want and doing well, than the champ they did and you doing bad.

or even,

  • If you KNOW you can't play a certain style, don't do it, again, just because your team is flailing at you to. Sure it is good to fill a role, such as last pick, you are support, pick a tank, BUT if you are godly Soraka, don't be pressured into playing a style you know you can't. Just make sure you are vocal about it when you know the role you will be playing.

Instead try,

Even though your teammates may ask you to play certain Champions, its still important to play to your strengths - and try to let your teammates play to theirs! Communicate with your teammates and let them know what roles, or Champions, you are best with. You might be able to coordinate to get a strong spread of skills or choose Champions that synergize with each other. Avoid asking other plays to play a certain Champion or forcing them to fill in a role.

And lastly,

  • Don't pick a champ because it is cool/the FOTM, especially if you don't know how to play it. Ranked is not the place to be testing out new champs and new builds. Good way to lose games.

Actually that one is okay.

Remember friends, League of Legends is a skill based game - but skill is not a static factor. Practice will make you better, knowledge is power, and telling people to "stop being bad" and killing their morale probably won't make them play better.

-K

Xonra3 votes

{quoted}

**PSA: When frustrated, considering wording your "legit advice" in a positive light rather than a derogatory manner.

It wasn't meant to be positive or negative, so much as straightforward, and honest. I have no issue with being positive in that sort of message, but wasn't fully the point as much as delivering the message bluntly and making sure there was no misunderstanding the message.

Was just hoping the message got across first and foremost more than giving the warm and fuzzies.

SecretAgentHulk1 votes

Bingo. I appreciated that. I suck at last-hitting, and latency makes skillshots hard (although thank you for new Chicago servers Rito!). I know this, and I'm improving—ADC is the second-most hard-to-find role in Team Builder, fun fact—but nobody's perfect, you do suck at something, and especially in Ranked, you should know what it is before you do something even more stupid.

That you suck at something is often thought to be negative. Nope. Everyone sucks in different ways. Beating someone over the heat with it can be extremely awful, but merely stating the fact, or even better, getting others to self-examine and state it themselves, is not negative and can even be positive.

Chicken4dinner1 votes

{quoted}

PSA: When frustrated, considering wording your "legit advice" in a positive light rather than a derogatory manner.

For example,

Could also be said as,

That way rather than saying "If you suck, do something else" you are instead saying, "This might be some successful strategies." Let's review some others.

Instead of,

Try,

Instead of,

Try,

Instead of,

and,

or even,

Instead try,

And lastly,

Actually that one is okay.

Remember friends, League of Legends is a skill based game - but skill is not a static factor. Practice will make you better, knowledge is power, and telling people to "stop being bad" and killing their morale probably won't make them play better.

-K

Write my posts for me, K?

Starfish H2 votes

So your telling me my advice of "You play bad and you should feel bad" Doesn't work? I need a moment to think about this. http://media.giphy.com/media/9WHbc90SKePcs/giphy.gif

T RexHasTinyArms3 votes

And here I was thinking OP was so much nicer than the vast majority of people I hear "giving advice" in solo que, and more importantly was actually giving useful advice. However, maybe that's just bc I actually do have to think about what I'm good and bad at (relatively speaking) or it is too easy to override the thought. For instance, Fizz and LeeSin are both really fun to play. I have a blast w/ them in bots games bc their kits are amusing. However, I am REALLY BAD at figuring out when to go in on assassins and I'm REALLY BAD at mechanics (compared to my game sense shot calling etc, or compared to people at my rank or above rather than compared to someone a full tier below me), so I don't play those champs in ranked really. If it's just a slight chance of winning difference then I'll play the fun champ over not playing them, but when I realize that me not being good at what that champ does is why I'm losing, then I have to decide if I want to improve that or play a different style, and I like playing control style game play most so I'll just play Nunu or something and not practice mechanics bc I don't want to practice them that much.

I think for me the most that could be rewritten in that advice to still be useful is maybe something like "if skill shots aren't a strength for your play" because beyond that I'd find an excuse to let myself off the hook. Then again, maybe I'm weird. I have had a lot of people I duo'd w/ tell me I shouldn't point out all the mistakes I made in a game as the reasons I lost the game and ignore the things my team did poorly. However, I never feel bad that I misplayed something, so it's not hurting me to blame myself for the losses, and knowing that I can't change other people's play but if I play a little bit better I might be able to make up for their weakness and we could have won anyway.... well that's what pushed me to improve a little each game and got me from bronze to gold this season (and made the second account I climbed that same distance with super easy to climb w/).

IcyPepper7 votes

If you KNOW you can't play a certain style, don't do it, again, just because your team is flailing at you to

This is excellent advice.

I hate when people force someone to pick a specific role, not a lane but a role. If your team has no tanks and you want to force the support to pick a tank, don't. Communicate first, see if the top laner or the jungler (and sometimes midlaner, for those potential Galio mains!) happen to have a decent pocket pick tank or even a bruiser. There's a reason why we have a timer in draft picks, use that time to actually communicate with your team instead of autolocking whatever and bitching at last pick for compensating for your nearsightedness.

Axis the Dragon1 votes

That, and the fact that because the Support will most likely be building Sightstone and their main support item, they're heavily delaying their actual tank items, making them far less effective as a pure tank

T RexHasTinyArms2 votes

Also (something I see a bit in your logic here) don't force people to play stuff just bc it's the easy way out. The number of games I played Heimerdinger top this season in 3rd or 4th pick and mid would freak out on me or the support bc "we have to have a tank, we can't have squishies in every lane" was so dumb. Learn how to play team comps and not just one team comp. If mid and adc pick Xerath Jinx first, and jungle and I pick Nidalee and Heimerdinger , then we have a strong late game poke comp (although LeeSin or XinZhao would work really well as jg for disengage and to make picks after poking someone down) that is more of an issue in being ap heavy than being to squishy. Don't insist the support pick a tank when Janna is probably the best possible support in this situation (she gives massive peel/disengage and boosts the AD we need Jinx to be bringing). Learn to think about how you can win with a different approach if the player doesn't go to what you want first.

Teslablade2 votes

I'm currently trying to make up for all the mechanics I missed out on from back when I mained Malzahar for 6 months.

Silver Fluffenbu2 votes

Heimerdinger : with this last component item 3116 I have invented an automated kite machine

Xonra2 votes

I like seeing that some people are identifying their playstyle through specific champions they play.

Hope someone saw this thread and got something out of it, as even the most "obvious" things might not be obvious to everyone. It is a lot easier to say all of this to someone out of game compared to trying to say it in game, where even the most well thought out, and well meant comment can be taken negatively in the heat of the moment.

Only Play Darius2 votes

I agree with all of this, especially not picking a champ you don't know over one you are experienced.

However, it's good to try to shore up your weaknesses by practicing champs opposite of your playstyle in normals. Try not to make excuses for being very bad at a certain role or mechanic.

As a Nasus main, I feel at home playing passively, focusing on CS and avoiding confrontation unless I know for a fact I can get a kill, so champs like Katarina MasterYi were easy for me to pick up. Of course this means I didn't have any idea how to trade in lane, and Nasus is not a champ that can win trades early so you can't learn that skill with him, so I started playing champs like Darius Yasuo Cassiopeia who play more aggressively. At first I was doing horrendous since I was starting from square one, but after a while I got the hang of it.

Sometimes you need to step out of your comfort zone regarding champion picks if you want to learn mechanics that you know you aren't good at. For example, I am very good at CS'ing in lane overall because for Nasus it is critical that he gets as much CS as possible for Q stacks and survivability, since he is weak early you also learn how to CS under harass/turret. On the flipside, i'm terrible at roaming overall because Nasus loses damage if he stops farming and his early game is weak anyway. Compare that to someone who mains a champ like Malphite MonkeyKing and might be absolutely terrible at CS'ing, but they are good at roaming and their champ has high base damage and/or CC so they can turn fights around and even if they have less than half their opponent's CS they can still have more gold from assists, so in the end they really don't feel pressure in learning how to properly CS.

You should have 1 or 2 champs/roles that you know extremely well and can consistently carry with, but if you want to climb ranked you really need to have good knowledge of most of the game's mechanics.

chipi992 votes

In champ select Me: Hey guys I can't ADC Teamate: Just go ADC you be fine 15 mins into game and Im 0/9/4 with 20 cs Teamate: Omg report our adc gor feeding Q.Q

Xonra1 votes

Bump

Hellish Prophecy1 votes

Amumu Anivia Chogath Gangplank Gnar JarvanIV Sion Thresh I guess my playstyle is if I catch you out or engage the fight correctly, you're fucked.

Boxpencil1 votes

Yasuo MonkeyKing I don't even know myself.

PopePancake1 votes

Veigar

BOW DOWN TO YOUR OVERLORD!! HEHEHEHEHEHHEHE!

L Psy Kongroo1 votes

Nunu Shaco Lulu Trundle I guess I like being an annoying asshole................muhahahaha!

WolfBV1 votes

Vayne Warwick MissFortune Brand Chogath Guess I like champions that's bursty and/or can stick to their opponents with continuous damage.

DazedOnlooker1 votes

Janna Lulu Sejuani

Dat Peel (And knock ups). I'm addicted to it.

Jingerbeardman1 votes

Common sense is something most people lack now... trying to teach someone what should be common sense is even worse. They either understand or they do not.

SH Azykan1 votes

Top: Shen Fizz Vladimir Morgana \guess I like split pushing and/or high pressure tp ganks?

Jungle: Shen Akali Quinn Fizz Teemo \no idea how to label this...

Mid: Annie Ahri Diana Morgana Talon Viktor \reliable, fight on my terms or not at all

ADC: Ezreal Jinx \just let me farm...I can be relevant later

Support: Braum Janna Morgana Thresh \just say no to ganks

ZT Xperimentor1 votes

Blitzcrank, chogath, nautilus, kench, & thresh; guess I like to punish people who underestimate me XD

FluffyMcArfArf1 votes

Nasus

...I just really like to play Nasus.

My preferred way to play him is AP, glass cannon or tanky.

xFrostKnightx1 votes

Zilean Karma Janna I enjoy poking while my Adc has a holiday farming. I also enjoy shielding myself and standing on dying minions to block enemy farm.

I swear I don't enjoy tilting people.

C9 Scott Free 1 votes

If you want to tilt people play support annie and run ignite

GenghisEmo1 votes

I find it hilarious how peoplel go into Ranked to try something new, and then it goes down hill fast and stops being funny and instead annoying.

ltmetal1 votes

As a further public service, if you are bad at something as important as map awareness or CS'ing, go into a custom game and practice it. Do 10 minutes of nothing but last hitting every minion until you can get 70 or more at 10 minutes. Give yourself three bot opponents (or if you can, find a friend who is patient) and practice laning against them while looking at your minimap every 10 seconds. Custom games are a great low pressure way to make you a better player.

Alleo1 votes

That's like when I call "fill except jungle" because I'm terrible at it and then everyone locks everything except jungle... So I'm just like "WELP guess it's gonna be a 5v4.5 since I'll be 3 levels behind everyone"

SecretAgentHulk1 votes

I remember the moment I first started thinking like this. I'm a support main who favors tanks and pokes, and I tried Leona on a free week. It was terrible. I've never played her since. I love her lore and power fantasy, but I couldn't get into her playstyle, and I finally realized that for all the tanks I love to play, I like to go all-in after an enemy makes a mistake, saving any gap closers for disengage unless I'm completely sure I'll win. Leona doesn't do this, unlike Braum or Thresh, or even Malphite. Once she commits, she's in it until she dies or everyone else does. Just playing one game as her helped me to realize what kind of a player I am, and to refine that style as well as shoring up the ones that I don't have nailed down.

Virgin Ray1 votes

I really don't care about play style, the only thing I care about is whether I like the champion's personality and design. Bard Braum Zed Jax Draven

TheMinionLeader1 votes

Pls, explain to me Bards personality.

Virgin Ray1 votes

Chill, laid back, only does something when its really important. trolly.

Snake Pillar1 votes

I like Bard, he's cute. Especially the way he walks. :D And his recall animation. I don't know, I just really like Bard, but he's kind of hard to play.

Snake Pillar1 votes

I really like playing Janna and Nami. Like supporty supports. Backline, keeping everyone safe. I'm terrible at melee champs, so I don't like going jungle or top. (Though I'm forced into it a lot in Ranked, lol. I can only play Maokai xD) And as ADC I play Jinx or Ezreal, because they're relatively safe and backline. I'm bad at front-line. :(

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